Update, 8/12

In the last week, I completed a new draft of my chapter on Susanna Mountfort Verbruggen and Anne Oldfield, incorporating the concepts of the grotesque vs. classical body to articulate what I think their particular brands of celebrity lead them to capitalize upon.

I have watched zero Jason Statham movies.

Depending on your perspective, this is either very good or very bad.

I've gotten some quick, positive feedback on that chapter, which I'm aiming to return to over the weekend.

In the meantime, I've been planning and outlining a new draft of the chapter on Sarah Siddons. I wrote a couple of weeks ago about my tendency to write maximally when creating drafts, and I definitely did this with an earlier draft of this chapter. Now, before I touch the actual prose again, I'm trying to be very clear on the argument I want to make here and now (versus the 75 others I'd like to make elsewhere and later). It's been really helpful, but today is the day I'm starting on the actual revision process, and it is, predictably, going in fits and starts. What's nice is that I'm able to recognize this as something that happens about now in the process for each chapter.

While I'm mulling and resisting any actual writing, I'm also sectioning out the chapter in Scrivener so it's easier to move things around and compare my argument's development at disparate points in the chapter. After I finish sectioning, I'm going to try drawing the chapter. I've never really done this before, but my mom mentioned the technique over the weekend and I thought I'd give it a try. I think this could also be helpful for envisioning how each chapter fits together, so maybe I'll do it for the full project as well.

At some point, a reverse outline will also be a technique I use, but the current draft is too long and unwieldy for that exercise at the moment.

I've also been making to-do lists for the rest of the week so I can let go of concerns about school starting in two weeks (EEK) by seeing what needs to be done and putting it in the calendar.

And, obviously, I wrote this business. Okay, back to it.

Excelsior, my friends.